Switch Screen Capture Finally Arrives in New Update

Update 4.0.0 has arrived for the Switch bringing some long-awaited features to the hybrid gaming device, Nintendo has announced.

Chief among these is the ability to capture video footage from games, finally bringing purpose to the ‘Capture Button’. Holding down this button during gameplay will automatically save up to the last 30 seconds of gameplay to the Album. Users can then trim these clips and share them to Facebook and Twitter, which means those spectacular moves, amusing moments, and epic fails can be posted far and wide.

It should be noted, however, that this feature will initially be restricted to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Arms, and Splatoon 2. There is no news as of yet on if or when the capture feature will be made available to other existing titles and new releases.

The other main change is the option to pre-purchase certain games from the Nintendo eShop. This will allow pre-installing of games so players can get sucked in as quickly as possible on release day. The official announcement points out ‘this feature will be supported by future game releases,’ which make sense as we can generally only pre-purchase games that have not been released yet.

There have also been functional and cosmetic changes made to the UI. Twelve new user icons have been added from Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the news feed has been given a new look. There are also options to apply software updates to all local users and transfer user data to another system.

No major issues arising from the update have been reported so far, but gamers and streamers are sure to be asking ‘why only 30 seconds?’.

David has been playing games since he got hooked on Bombjack and California Games as a kid. Having moved on from joystick waggling, he now enjoys survival adventures, interactive stories, and all things indie.